Today began with us hitting the road for Fort Callhoun and our annual Alpaca Farm Day excursion. We just love these animals! They are so incredibly soft and have such fun personalities. We've been learning quite a bit about them over the past couple of years and hope to have some in the near future. Their fleece makes amazingly soft and warm fiber to be turned into all sorts of fun things...our favorites being socks, mittens, and scarves. Spun in their natural colors or dyed a rainbow of rich colors, the yarn it gets spun into is just a dream to work with for any project you care to make. They are sweet, gentle animals and would be so much fun to have a herd of our own to tend each day.
On our way to the alpaca farm, I took a double take and couldn't believe my eyes. There in a pasture, right alongside a few other animals was, of all things, A CAMEL. I kid you not. So to be sure I hadn't lost what little shred of sanity I have left, on our way home, we back tracked to find that camel. Sure enough, there he was, relaxing and enjoying this beautiful fall morning in Nebraska. We pulled over, off toward the ditch, to snap some pictures when the farmer happened to come along and invite us over. Yes, again, only in Nebraska:). He was such a nice man with an incredible life story. It turns out that his animals are pretty much all rescues in one way or another and he has a heart for not only saving them, but using them to help at risk youth as well. So there we were, spending a very pleasant hour and a half unexpectedly in a pasture surrounded by not only Zar the camel (whom Farmer has had since he was a month old and is now 4 years old), but a zonkey named Murphy, Dexter the big ol' paint horse, a small size bull named Bernie that has the temperament of a Labrador, a gorgeous jersey cow named Malcolm, a lamb, and two pot bellied pigs. Across the pasture were two mini donkeys and two mini paint ponies, and farmer even has a wolf (which we didn't have the opportunity to meet). Can you even imagine???? Seriously, you have no idea what fun it is to walk through a pasture with a camel, zonkey, and paint pony flanking you, and a jersey cow, a gentle bull, and a lamb following on your heels!!! Yes, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!!! I was more than happy to jump outta that truck, into a muddy road ditch full of weeds and burrs sticking into my sweater and leggings the rest of the day for a chance to get up close and personal with a camel!!!
We made it back to Lincoln just in time for the JDRF One Walk, something we've participated in every year for the past eleven years. Gracie is in her tenth year as a youth ambassador for JDRF and our annual walk is a highlight for her.
As you can imagine, I've got some tired girls around here tonight. It's been a full day, but one stuffed with the things memories are made of. These are the days I cherish. 
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